Court Orders New Trial for Death Row Inmate
The state Supreme Court in Richmond ordered a new trial to determine whether a death row inmate is mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for capital punishment.
The inmate, Daryl Atkins, was at the heart of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that executing the mentally retarded was unconstitutional.
The high court left it to the states to define retardation and sent Atkins’ case back to circuit court. In August, a Virginia jury determined Atkins was not retarded, allowing his death sentence for a 1996 murder to stand.
The state high court ordered the new trial on Atkins’ mental status because the jury had been improperly told Atkins had previously been sentenced to death.
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